In this Q&A, we are talking with Craig Wortmann, Clinical Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business about how strong sales strategies are changing businesses and key skills you will learn in his new course, Sales Strategies: Mastering the Selling Process:
Why is it important to learn about sales?
Sales is an incredibly important set of skills and disciplines to learn because you are selling much more than you may realize. We all have goals, big and small: to help our kids; to grow our businesses; to get a great job; to have a network of trusted friends; to see our ideas come to life. And in order to accomplish these goals, we must sell. When you try to persuade your child that writing a thank you note after a gift is the right thing to do, or when you tell an interviewer about why your experience might be a good fit, or when you hire a new employee, you are selling! When you can do this well, YOU get that job, your child DOES develop those habits, and your business DOES grow. Selling is a set of skills and disciplines we all use daily.
How are strong sales strategies changing businesses?
One of the pervasive myths in business is; “Build a better mousetrap, and they will beat a path to your door” (Ralph Waldo Emerson). No, they won’t. It sounds so good, but it’s just not true. This is like saying that by putting a resume in front of a company, they will hire you without any further work on your part. Our capabilities, ideas, products and services need to be sold, and companies big and small are realizing this. As companies deploy talented, skilled and disciplined sales people, they see their growth accelerating dramatically, and this opens up possibilities both for their people and for product and market diversification.
What strategies in sales does this course focus on?
Our Sales Strategies: Mastering the Selling Process course focuses on the critical skills and disciplines that high-performing sales people demonstrate to separate themselves – and their businesses – from the rest. Just a few of the skills and disciplines we tackle are how high performers engage people in conversations, how they handle objections and how they tell “the right story at the right time for the right reasons.” These are all tools of influence, and we discuss how to make them part of your strategy.
How does this course prepare learners for careers in this field?
Each learner will develop his/her own Sales Toolkit and will outfit that Toolkit with 10 critical sales tools that every salesperson needs, no matter the industry they serve. In the process of creating this Toolkit, the course equips learners with the skills and disciplines to take action on the Toolkit and jump to the front of the pack in their sales career.
